They Love Ron Johnson
At a rally for U.S. Senator, supporters extoll Johnson as an "honest man" and a fighter.
Sen. Ron Johnson is leading Lt. Gov Mandela Barnes in most polls two weeks out from the election. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)
Sen. Ron Johnson is commonly referred to as one of the country’s most unpopular U.S. senators. His approval rating, according to a recent Marquette Law School poll, is at 41% — up four points since June — and yet, Wisconsin is on the verge of sending him back to Washington for a third term.
The same Marquette poll showed that among likely voters, Johnson is leading his Democratic opponent, Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes by about six points. Among all registered voters, the poll found a dead heat with both candidates at 47%, but forecasters are predicting a Johnson win, with FiveThirtyEight giving him a 75% shot.
That pugnacity, along with a severe dislike for Barnes, is the appeal for some voters who plan to vote for him again this year — even though he’s breaking a promise to only serve two terms.
At a rally for Republican state Senate candidates in Reedsburg on Tuesday, in the strip mall office of the Sauk County Republican Party, voters said they saw Johnson as someone who’s fighting against “Chinese communists” and “globalists,” an honest man who is trying to steer a country they believe is at a crossroads in the direction they want because he stands for “the little guys.”
These voters say they wouldn’t vote for a Democrat. They see the Democratic voters in Wisconsin’s cities as “hollow” people with “no substance.” Why else, says one voter who would only give his first name Steve, would they have chosen someone with the “milquetoast, dish rag personality” of Gov. Tony Evers?
In the Reedsburg storefront, as a gaggle of Republican state senators mingled with voters over coffee and donuts, 74-year-old David Olson was wearing an American flag jacket capped with a cheesehead adorned with stickers for Johnson and Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels and a toy John Deere tractor attached to the top. A military veteran, Olson says Americans need “to wake up to the threat that’s before us.”
There are five issues Olson says he considers most important. Number one, he says, is that a candidate must be anti-abortion because “babies are a miracle.” He says securing the country’s border is important because “nobody can show up and expect us to take care of them” before people in the country have been fully taken care of. He wants lower taxes, a strong military and the Second Amendment defended.
Despite Johnson’s promise that he only serve two terms, Olson believes he’d only break that promise for a good reason.
Johnson was criticized last month by Democrats for touting a history of bipartisan legislation that was largely made up of bills renaming post offices. But Olson says he is a “mover and shaker.”
“His biggest accomplishment is he’s making us aware of what’s happening in government,” Olson says.
Sitting around a table ahead of the rally, a group of three voters refuse to share their names but are willing to share that they haven’t watched sports since the leagues “became woke.”
“I like voting for people who are for the people and not for Chinese communism and not for globalism,” says one of them, who adds that Johnson “appears to be honest.” Though he still has some issues with Johnson, over the Patriot Act, for example.
“I didn’t say he’s the perfect senator,” the man says. “Not all Republicans are saints, some of them are pieces of [expletive].”
Several voters at the rally say they appreciate that Johnson is a “bootstraps guy” who earned his money working in the private sector and still “stands up for little guys.” Johnson earned a multi-million dollar fortune running a plastics company started by his wife’s family that relied largely on millions of dollars from his father-in-law’s business across the street.
“Nobody gave him anything,” says Steve, the voter who wouldn’t give his last name. “That’s the difference between Republican candidates and Democrat candidates. Democrats have very few achievements … Republicans earned something before deciding to run for office.”
“At this point, I don’t care what he has done, I don’t want Mandela Barnes in there,” Fry says.
Steve, who said he’s lived in Sauk County for six years, says the 2018 election — which elected a wave of Democrats to statewide office in Wisconsin and gave them control of the U.S. House of Representatives — was rigged as a practice run for 2020 and that he thinks it’s President Joe Biden’s fault that people believe it’s OK to make fun of old people.
Numerous audits, lawsuits, recounts and reviews have affirmed that the 2020 election was not rigged and that Biden won Wisconsin by about 21,000 votes.
Despite thinking that there’s “a whole lot of people in Madison who will cheat,” Steve says he thinks Johnson will easily defeat Barnes next month and that he’s supporting Johnson because he’s a fighter.
“He’s not afraid to take on the press, I love him for that,” Steve says. “He’s fearless in a lot of ways.”
Republican voters looking for a fight are turning to Ron Johnson again was originally published by Wisconsin Examiner
Now 10 plus years ago George Lakoff explained in detail why they “love” and support the likes of Trump and Johnson. The Dem’s did all in their power to ignore him, They actually worked against him. And so it is.
If you have not read his work there is stuff out there that explains how the mind works of those who like Trump and Johnson and the rest,
Here is a recent article that is based upon Lakoff’s observations actually of Dobbs of the fundamental Christian Movement Strong Fathers
Bruce and Bruce you could follow up on this and I will give you some reference if you want 414 403 1341
Cognitive biases and brain biology help explain why facts don’t change minds
It can feel safer to block out contradictory information that challenges a belief
By KEITH M. BELLIZZI
PUBLISHED AUGUST 14, 2022 10:00AM (EDT)
This article was originally published on The Conversation.
“Facts First” is the tagline of a CNN branding campaign which contends that “once facts are established, opinions can be formed.” The problem is that while it sounds logical, this appealing assertion is a fallacy not supported by research.
Cognitive psychology and neuroscience studies have found that the exact opposite is often true when it comes to politics: People form opinions based on emotions, such as fear, contempt and anger, rather than relying on facts. New facts often do not change people’s minds.
I study human development, public health and behavior change. In my work, I see firsthand how hard it is to change someone’s mind and behaviors when they encounter new information that runs counter to their beliefs.
Your worldview, including beliefs and opinions, starts to form during childhood as you’re socialized within a particular cultural context. It gets reinforced over time by the social groups you keep, the media you consume, even how your brain functions. It influences how you think of yourself and how you interact with the world.
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For many people, a challenge to their worldview feels like an attack on their personal identity and can cause them to harden their position. Here’s some of the research that explains why it’s natural to resist changing your mind – and how you can get better at making these shifts.
Rejecting what contradicts your beliefs
In an ideal world, rational people who encounter new evidence that contradicts their beliefs would evaluate the facts and change their views accordingly. But that’s generally not how things go in the real world.
Partly to blame is a cognitive bias that can kick in when people encounter evidence that runs counter to their beliefs. Instead of reevaluating what they’ve believed up until now, people tend to reject the incompatible evidence. Psychologists call this phenomenon belief perseverance. Everyone can fall prey to this ingrained way of thinking.
Being presented with facts – whether via the news, social media or one-on-one conversations – that suggest their current beliefs are wrong causes people to feel threatened. This reaction is particularly strong when the beliefs in question are aligned with your political and personal identities. It can feel like an attack on you if one of your strongly held beliefs is challenged.
Confronting facts that don’t line up with your worldview may trigger a “backfire effect,” which can end up strengthening your original position and beliefs, particularly with politically charged issues. Researchers have identified this phenomenon in a number of studies, including ones about opinions toward climate change mitigation policies and attitudes toward childhood vaccinations.
Focusing on what confirms your beliefs
There’s another cognitive bias that can get in the way of changing your mind, called confirmation bias. It’s the natural tendency to seek out information or interpret things in a way that supports your existing beliefs. Interacting with like-minded people and media reinforces confirmation bias. The problem with confirmation bias is that it can lead to errors in judgment because it keeps you from looking at a situation objectively from multiple angles.
A 2016 Gallup poll provides a great example of this bias. In just one two-week period spanning the 2016 election, both Republicans and Democrats drastically changed their opinions about the state of the economy – in opposite directions.
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But nothing was new with the economy. What had changed was that a new political leader from a different party had been elected. The election outcome changed survey respondents’ interpretation of how the economy was doing – a confirmation bias led Republicans to rate it much higher now that their guy would be in charge; Democrats the opposite.
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Brain’s hard-wiring doesn’t help
Cognitive biases are predictable patterns in the way people think that can keep you from objectively weighing evidence and changing your mind. Some of the basic ways your brain works can also work against you on this front.
Your brain is hard-wired to protect you – which can lead to reinforcing your opinions and beliefs, even when they’re misguided. Winning a debate or an argument triggers a flood of hormones, including dopamine and adrenaline. In your brain, they contribute to the feeling of pleasure you get during sex, eating, roller-coaster rides – and yes, winning an argument. That rush makes you feel good, maybe even invulnerable. It’s a feeling many people want to have more often.
Moreover, in situations of high stress or distrust, your body releases another hormone, cortisol. It can hijack your advanced thought processes, reason and logic – what psychologists call the executive functions of your brain. Your brain’s amygdala becomes more active, which controls your innate fight-or-flight reaction when you feel under threat.
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In the context of communication, people tend to raise their voice, push back and stop listening when these chemicals are coursing through their bodies. Once you’re in that mindset, it’s hard to hear another viewpoint. The desire to be right combined with the brain’s protective mechanisms make it that much harder to change opinions and beliefs, even in the presence of new information.
You can train yourself to keep an open mind
In spite of the cognitive biases and brain biology that make it hard to change minds, there are ways to short-circuit these natural habits.
Work to keep an open mind. Allow yourself to learn new things. Search out perspectives from multiple sides of an issue. Try to form, and modify, your opinions based on evidence that is accurate, objective and verified.
Don’t let yourself be swayed by outliers. For example, give more weight to the numerous doctors and public health officials who describe the preponderance of evidence that vaccines are safe and effective than what you give to one fringe doctor on a podcast who suggests the opposite.
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Be wary of repetition, as repeated statements are often perceived as more truthful than new information, no matter how false the claim may be. Social media manipulators and politicians know this all too well.
Presenting things in a nonconfrontational way allows people to evaluate new information without feeling attacked. Insulting others and suggesting someone is ignorant or misinformed, no matter how misguided their beliefs may be, will cause the people you are trying to influence to reject your argument. Instead, try asking questions that lead the person to question what they believe. While opinions may not ultimately change, the chance of success is greater.
Recognize we all have these tendencies and respectfully listen to other opinions. Take a deep breath and pause when you feel your body ramping up for a fight. Remember, it’s OK to be wrong at times. Life can be a process of growth.
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Keith M. Bellizzi, Professor of Human Development and Family Sciences, University of Connecticut
These people are delusional.
“No one gave (Ron Johnson) anything.”
He married a billionaire’s daughter, was gifted a company, and used that company to shield himself from taxes , along with giving himself a $10 million “bonus” in 2010 to pay off his first campaign. GET REAL.
“Johnson is fighting against “Chinese Communists” and “globalists.”
Johnson got tens of millions of dollars in business dealings with China, thoroughly backed the Foxconn scam, and said the outsourcing of US jobs to other countries was a good thing.
I don’t know what planet these limited losers live on, but it sure isn’t mine. And we can’t be ruled by these mediocre trash-bags anymore. It’s wrecking this state and this country.
The Congressional Integrity Project’s report, “ALL IN THE FAMILY: THE JOHNSONS, CORRUPTION & NEPOTISM” describes how Ron Johnson has used his office to personally profit. It is unfortunate that many Wisconsin voters lack this information. Ron Johnson is for the “little guy” only as a source of votes and money.
Ron Johnson’s latest commercial shows him raking leaves, just like ordinary folk, and voicing his concerns, asking the viewer “Aren’t you tired of all the division and anger? I promise I’ll do everything I can to make things better and to always tell the truth”. The only reason this works is corporate media and their unwillingness to tell the truth about corruption in this country. Corruption embodied in US Senators like Ron Johnson. Frightened white people are also a problem.